5 Signs Your Bank Is the Next IndyMac

Welcome to the Daily 5, our "Foolish" look at the business news you can use.

Banks look like the worst stocks in the world right now. Shares of Wachovia (NYSE: WB), Washington Mutual (NYSE: WM), and National City (NYSE: NCC) are in tatters. Not even Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) can get a salute. (Well, maybe one kind of salute.) Will your bank be next? Here are five ways to know if your thrift is the next IndyMac . Drum roll, please:

5. Your bank teller starts asking, "Do you want fries with that?"

4. The envelope stuffer in your next statement is for the "Save the Bank" fund.

3. Three words: Teller tip jars.

2. The ATM dispenses an IOU.

And the No. 1 sign that your bank is the next IndyMac ... Freddie Mac (NYSE: FRE) won't return its calls.

Call it gallows humor -- meant to disguise that we're as sick as you are about where the banking industry is now and where it's headed. A new study from Bridgewater Associates says bank losses could rise to $1.6 trillion from $400 billion today. Make sure to stock up on canned goods. And ice cream -- because, really, there's no such thing as too much ice cream.

Copyright © 2008 Universal Press Syndicate.